Entertainment

Nicki Minaj: ‘It Is Possible to Be an Animal Onstage and a Caring Mother at the Same Time’

Nicki Minaj has a precise goal in mind and a tight game plan to get there: the New York rapper wants to earn five hundred million dollars and leave a permanent mark on the world of music. All within four years. After which, she will retreat and become a full-time mother. “I gave myself a time limit to reach my professional goals”, says the 32 year-old singer on the telephone from her home in Los Angeles. “I don’t want to work my whole life without ever experiencing the joys of a family”.

The singer, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, author of hits like Anaconda, Super Bass and Starships, never kept her ambitions a secret. And, in fact, she is not far from realizing them. Her rise to stardom was lightning quick, even by the Warholian standards of the term, thanks to a mixture of musical talent, sensuality and arrogance, which have transformed her in just a few years into the most influential woman in the history of hip hop. To gain respect in a world dominated by men who measure themselves by bouts of rhymes and testosterone, Minaj had to fight with her teeth and nails. She created a name for herself through her cameos in the songs of other male rappers (such as Monster with Kanye West, Jay-Z and Rick Ross). She constructed a persona with coloured wigs and eccentric costumes that highlight her body’s curves. And she has demonstrated her talent by mixing salty lyrics with passionate rhythms and risqué choreographies.